Pedestrians walk past an electronic board showing currency exchange rates in Buenos Aires' financial district, Argentina, June 29, 2018. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
- The collapse of the Turkish lira and the strong dollar have hit emerging market currencies globally.
- If the trend continues, countries may start to have trouble paying back dollar-denominated debts.
- Analysts say Argentina, Pakistan, South Africa, and Colombia are among those most at risk.
LONDON - The collapse of the Turkish lira against the dollar is the focus of global markets but emerging market currencies are getting hammered across the board and there are concerns that the issue could spiral from a currency crisis into a debt crisis.
The Indian rupee hit an all-time low against the dollar overnight, the South African rand has been diving, Argentina's central bank hiked rates by 5% on Monday to arrest the peso's decline, and Indonesia's government is meeting to discuss emergency measures to defend the sinking rupiah.
"EM [emerging market] currencies (judged by the Bloomberg EM currency basket) are now at their lowest nominal value in the past three years - below the level reached in early 2016 at the time of the commodity price fall and period of US$ strength," analysts Stuart Culverhouse and Hasnain Malik from emerging market specialist bank Exotix said in a note on Tuesday. ...
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